Appeals Court Affirms Warrantless Computer Searches

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from ComputerWorld: "Laptop computers and other digital devices carried into the US may be seized from travelers without a warrant and sent to a secondary site for forensic inspection, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled last week. The ruling is the second in less than a year that allows the US government to conduct warrantless, offsite searches of digital devices seized at the country's borders. A federal court in Michigan last May issued a similar ruling in a case challenging the constitutionality of the warrantless seizure of a computer at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Several other courts, including the Ninth Circuit itself, have ruled that warrantless, suspicion-less searches of laptops and other digital devices can take place at US border locations."

Comments

Re:What is the purpose exactly?

[Martin Blank]

It's not always that easy. The Brazilian authorities enlisted the aid of the FBI in cracking the encryption on the hard drive of banker Daniel Dantas, who was suspected of money laundering and attempting to bribe law enforcement. Despite five months of work by Brazil and about twelve months by the FBI, they couldn't get into his drives protected by TrueCrypt using AES-256 and good, long passwords. He was eventually sentenced to ten years in prison, but only on the bribery charges. The money laundering case couldn't proceed without the data on the drives.

Sex offenders: the new jews?

[TiggertheMad]

If you read TFA, the guy was a REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER in California according to TSA records.

WHOAH, how is that fact even relevant? Even convicted criminals have civil rights. Just because you find this guy personally repugnant doesn't mean that he isn't a person under the constitution.

Replace 'sex offender' with the word 'jew' and try to repeat your statement without sounding like a Nazi. Go on, I dare you.

Re:"Suspicion-less searches" comes in handy

[gstoddart]

If you read TFA, the guy was a REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER in California according to TSA records. That gave them reason to believe he may have had contraband files on his PC, especially after they found many files were encrypted (another red flag). This wasn't some joe-blow they picked at random.

I believe TFA makes it pretty clear that "the border search doctrine allows such actions even without reasonable suspicion or cause".

So, the ruling says that despite the fact that "this wasn't some joe-blow they picked at random", it could be ... and it would be equally valid.

Don't try to kid yourself that only when they have some suspicion or information ... it upholds the notion of suspicion-less searches. Meaning, anyone, any time, for no reason and without justification.

Look past the fact that this particular guy was a sex offender ... the ruling does. The scope of this is far broader than just that.

Re:"Suspicion-less searches" comes in handy

[Spatial]

REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER

What kind I wonder? The term has been diluted to meaninglessness by systematic abuse.

- Guy who sent nude pictures to their girlfriend before they were 18?
- Guy who called a coworker a stupid cunt?
- Guy who downloaded bad drawings from the Internet?
- Guy who downloaded bad pictures from the Internet?
- Guy who flashed children?
- Guy who raped children?

That's not the good link!

[way2trivial]

This is the one to ram the point home!
http://www.aclu.org/constitution-free-zone-map

live in the orange? then this story applies to you!

they can search whatever the hell they want if you live there.

no warrant

no recourse